AUBURN HILLS – No one really believed the Pistons when they said they were all right. Sure, Game 2 was a gut-punch defeat. But the Pistons spoke about enduring past bad times and showing resiliency and all the stuff that sounds like they’re trying to convince themselves. So just wait, they said. They’d come back.

Yeah, right.

Well, yeah, they were right. And they came back with a defense that dismantled the Lakers in every way and provided the impetus for a 88-68 Game 3 victory that brought a 2-1 Finals lead. So how tough were the Pistons? Kobe Bryant, hounded by a helping Piston defense, scored 11 points. Shaquille O’Neal had 14 but he didn’t shoot a free throw until 7:27 remained in the game. The Lakers, with Karl Malone (knee) limping and proving ineffective, looked completely lost. Game 2 seemed years ago.

“Not taking anything away from the Lakers and Kobe’s shot [that forced Game 2 overtime], but that game was over,” said Detroit coach Larry Brown. “We watched film, tried to point out things we needed to do and go from there.”

And where they went was to a dominating performance that included 31 points by Richard Hamilton, 19 from Chauncey Billups and 21 combined rebounds from Ben and Rasheed Wallace. And it included a suffocating defense that held the Lakers under 70 points for the first time in their 561-game playoff history.

“I haven’t been with many teams or many NBA players that didn’t get over losses quickly,” Brown said.

Took ’em about a day.

Billups, urged by Brown to distribute the ball more, called his own number early in the third quarter. And it sent the Lakers rushing to a timeout. Billups, who has dominated Gary Payton in scoring, accounted for nine straight Piston points and when Tayshaun Prince added a follow-up at 7:55, Detroit led by 14 points, 54-40. Detroit stretched its lead to 16 before taking a 63-51 lead into the fourth.

The Lakers pulled into halftime just two points ahead of the lowest Finals first-half total ever (done three times, including by the Nets against the Spurs last year). Yet their 32 points that included an 0-of-4, 1-point explosion by Bryant left the Lakers just seven points down, 39-32. And Bryant’s point came on a defensive technical foul call. Kobe’s first basket came at 7:35 of the third quarter after he missed five

“Just staying connected,” Hamilton said of the Pistons defense that might have secured the game by halftime had it not been for the Pistons offense which went through an 0-of-10 skid during the second quarter, a famine ended by Hamilton’s drive at 1:15 – and an offense that did not produce an assist from the starting backcourt.

Hamilton and Billups combined to outscore L.A.’s starting guards, 22-1, over the first 24 minutes.

The Pistons’ defense was as stingy as it ever has been, contesting every shot, every pass, making the Lakers look completely out of sync. Shaq got 11 shots, making six, but there was virtually nothing else. Malone was noticeably limping but in the early going, he represented about the only force the Lakers put up on the boards. Detroit held a 20-10 lead on the glass at one point (but held just a 26-22 edge at intermission with Ben Wallace snaring seven).

Malone was a game-time decision but he had vowed for two days to play despite a right knee injury that sounds like a tear, far more serious than the announced sprain. In December, when Malone suffered a tear, it was called a sprain.

Few and chosen

Fewest total points scored in an NBA Finals game since the 24-second shot clock was introduced for the 1954-55 season: